🏔️ Outbound AI SDRs

Hey there,

Welcome to the SaaS Hill, a newsletter that tries to predict the future of SaaS.

Let's discuss AI SDRs 🤖.

Today’s edition is brought to you by Reply — Generate leads via multichannel sequences with unlimited mailboxes, convert website traffic into booked meetings, or hire AI SDR Agents to handle it for you.

Recently Reply launched Jason - an AI SDR AI agent that books more meetings by automating sales outreach, from finding prospects to handling responses.

⭐️️ Intro

Sales prospecting and outreach have changed a lot since 2015 and even 2021.

Google and Yahoo spam policies, new sending limits, domain reputation, spam filters, personalization, intent & signals, email outreach automation, dozens of tools and tactics.

Now AI.

Two or three years ago it was unclear how it could be helpful.

Now Gartner estimates that by 2025, AI will generate 30% of all outbound communications.

It seems true, as we are witnessing a rise in AI SDRs — digital agents capable of handling the entire outbound process, from finding prospects to managing responses.

Here is what we will discuss today:

• 9 predictions about AI SDRs

• 14 products in this category

• 10 AI-first cold outreach agencies

• 16 experts to follow

• 6 useful links (like, really useful)

• 4 related trend reports

🤔 Predictions

1. Outbound and cold outreach are evolving: multiple domains, email inbox warm-up, sending limits, anti-spam systems, spam rates, liquid syntax, domain rotation, link and open tracking.

2. Here are already some changes in tech stacks, as we can observe a shift to AI-first sales tools across different categories:

   1. B2B databases > e.g. Ocean.io

   2. No-code prospecting > e.g. Clay

   3. CRMs > e.g. folk

   4. Power dialers> e.g. Orum

   5. Video prospecting > e.g. Sendspark

   6. AI account research > e.g. Persana

   7. The same happens in cold outreach

3. AI SDRs represent a natural shift in cold outreach and sales engagement platforms.

4. In the future, it is likely that the majority of sales emails will include AI-generated sentences, as more companies adopt AI. Gartner predicts that by 2025, 30% of outbound messages from large organizations will be synthetically generated.

5. AI digital workers (including AI SDRs) and AI co-pilots aim to increase a company’s productivity, but their ultimate goal is to either replace or work alongside real-world colleagues, reducing manual work and repetitive tasks.

6. As a result, AI SDRs will support both modes:

   1. Co-pilot mode > AI SDR will wait for approval from a real person (e.g., send a response, book a meeting, launch a sequence).

   2. Autopilot mode > execute tasks on its own, based on a prompt or command.

7. We will see at least 3 types of AI SDRs:

   1. AI outbound SDRs > (e.g. Jason - AI SDR by Reply.io)

   2. AI inbound SDRs > (e.g. AI Chat by Reply.io or Piper by Qualified)

   3. AI account executives (e.g. Fullcontext)

8. We will see agile, tech-savvy outbound growth teams that will closely work with the sales, marketing, and growth teams to help adopt cold outreach into a new reality: no-code prospecting, intent-based prospecting, APIs & tech stacks, AI personalization, prospects prioritization etc.

9. New roles and changes in B2B sales orgs:

   1. Growth Ops > Automation, no-code, sales tech stacks, APIs and data for SDRs; with focus on business objectives.

   2. Prompt Engineers and AI Ops > Create prompts, check AI tools, fine-tune models etc; with a focus on technical setup.

   3. SDRs > Handle responses, more strategic and enterprise sales development.

   4. AEs > Close deals booked by AI SDRs, growth ops and SDRs.

🏢 Products

1. Jason AI by Reply.io > Book more meetings by automating sales outreach, from finding prospects to handling responses.

2. anybiz > Your new AI driven outbound agent.

3. AiSDR > AiSDR books meetings with your prospects through personalized conversations via text and email.

4. Artisan > Ava takes care of the end-to-end B2B cold email sales process, and operates alongside your human BDR team in our platform.

5. 11x > Automate every step of your outreach process, from finding and researching prospects to personalizing messages and booking meetings.

6. Luna > With Luna, anyone can book meetings through cold emails.

7. Mia by Topo > Let Mia handle all your outbound tasks and book meetings for you.

8. Kalendar AI > Generate new revenue on autopilot with AI.

9. B2B Rocket > Supercharge your sales & book new revenue with AI.

10. Neexa > Now Your Business can make sales 24/7 powered by AI.

11. Wizia > Wizia 'AI SDRs' take on the full workflow of email outbound.

12. SuperRep > AI Outbound BDR to research, craft and send hyper-personalized cold emails.

13. hyperscale > Automatically find and research verified leads across popular databases, then send high-response personalized messages.

14. Bella > 10X Your Leads with conversational sales AI for LinkedIn & email.

📈 Trend Chart

Number of sent and received e-mails per day worldwide from 2017 to 2026 (Source: Statista)

Number of Email Users Worldwide (Source: Statista)

👔 Agencies

1. navreo.ai > We use AI to 100x the top-performing growth strategies of B2B sales teams.

2. Growth Engine X > Builds and automates your company's cold email outbound process.

3. SDR Labs > Expert Lead Gen & Appointment Booking

4. SalesCaptain > B2B Outbound Sales Agency

5. StackOptimize > We leverage AI, automations, and best-in-class sales-tech to build outbound systems

6. ColdIQ > Implement outbound systems that sell for you.

7. Growth Cube > B2B growth infrastructure built for today.

8. Skyeline > Drive more revenue without all the manual work.

9. Modern Outbound > Helping startups build a more predictable sales pipeline.

10. tinydata > Agency that helps SMBs effectively reach their ideal decision-maker.

📖 Experts to Follow

1. Eric Nowoslawski > Founder Growth Engine X

2. Alan Ruchtein > I help SDRs and Founders increase their meetings booked

3. Ariel Levin > Founder at SDR Labs

4. Bill Stathopoulos > CEO, SalesCaptain

5. Felix Frank > Founder at StackOptimize

6. Alex Vacca > Co-Founder & COO at ColdIQ

7. Bjion Henry > We use AI to 100x your top growth-strategies

8. Can Timağur > Growth @ Persana AI

9. Alexis- Martial > Builds Go-To-Market systems using AI

10. Niklas Huetzen > Pipeline growth systems for B2B using Clay and AI

11. Yuriy Zaremba > Co-founder & CEO at AiSDR

12. Dharmesh Shah > Founder and CTO at Hubspot

13. Manny Medina > CEO at Outreach

14. Matt Millen > Co-Founder at regie

15. Jake Dunlap > CEO at Skaled Consulting

16. Guillermo Blanco > Co-Founder at Reach

🔗 Useful Links

1. List of 1.000+ Sales Tools by Reply

2. List of 100+ AI sales tools

3. ColdIQ > We build outbound systems that sell for you

4. 6 Cold Outreach AI Resources by Reply

5. AI for Sales Prospecting: A Complete Guide by Clay

6. The AI SDR era? by Kyle Poyar

🤝 Related SaaS Trends

1. 🏔️ Generative AI in B2B Sales > empowering B2B sales with AI

2. 🏔️ No Code Prospecting > is this an era of outbound 3.0?

3. 🏔️ Intent-Based Prospecting > huge shifts in outbound playbooks

4. 🏔️ Cold Emails Guide > how to write un-ignorable cold emails

Thanks for reading. See you next time 👋
Best, Vlad

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